Getting Started

SikaBooks CRM helps a sales team turn enquiries into controlled commercial outcomes. It keeps ownership, follow-up, customer communication, estimates, proformas, and invoices connected so that the next person can understand what happened and what should happen next.

CRM is the operational sales record. An estimate or proforma can be issued without Accounting, but neither document posts to the General Ledger. When Accounting is enabled, an accepted commercial document may become an Accounting draft invoice for financial review.

1.1 Accessing CRM

1. Sign in to SikaBooks and open the correct business.
2. Select CRM from the module switcher.
3. Open My Sales Workspace to see the leads, follow-ups, deals, and commercial documents that need your attention.

The screens shown in the sidebar depend on your permissions and the CRM features enabled for the business. A missing shortcut usually means that your role does not have that capability; it does not mean the historical record was deleted.

1.2 Dashboard Overview

My Sales Workspace is the daily starting point for a salesperson. It prioritises:

• Leads assigned to you that need qualification or follow-up.
• Calls, meetings, tasks, and overdue activities due today.
• Deals with no next action, stale progress, or a closing date approaching.
• Draft, sent, accepted, declined, and expiring estimates or proformas.
• Conversations waiting for a reply.

Owners and CRM managers can also use the broader dashboard and reports to review:

• Pipeline KPIs — Open deals, total pipeline value, weighted forecast, deals closing this month
• Revenue Metrics — Won revenue (month/quarter), average deal size, win rate
• Pipeline Funnel — Visual breakdown of deals by stage
• Recent Activities — Latest tasks, calls, meetings, and follow-ups
• Top Customers — Highest-value customers by revenue
• Revenue Trend — Monthly revenue over time
• Overdue Activities — Tasks that need immediate attention

1.3 The Sales Flow at a Glance

Use this sequence as the default operating flow:

Do not create a second customer or deal merely because the sales stage changed. Continue from the existing lead, customer, and deal so ownership and history remain connected.

1.4 Roles and Record Ownership

Sales Representative

• Sees and works records currently assigned to them.
• Automatically owns leads and customers they create.
• Cannot assign a new record to another salesperson or open another salesperson's record by changing the URL.
• Keeps salesperson attribution on estimates, proformas, invoices, and contracts created from their assigned customer or deal.

CRM Manager

• Sees the complete CRM workspace with crm.records.view_all.
• Can reassign active work with crm.assignments.manage.
• Reviews the manager-only unassigned queue for web-form or imported records that have no valid owner.
• Uses pipeline and salesperson reports to identify stalled work and uneven allocation.

Business Owner

• Has full CRM visibility through the verified-owner authority contract.
• Can manage assignments, permissions, pipelines, settings, and cross-module integration.

Reassignment updates the customer and its open leads, deals, activities, and conversations together. Closed commercial documents retain their original salesperson attribution for audit and performance reporting.

Bulk assignment and creator history

CRM managers and verified owners can select leads or customers, preview the impact, and move the complete open customer workflow to one active salesperson. The operation covers the customer, open leads, open deals, incomplete activities, open conversations, and eligible draft commercial documents. Closed leads, completed activities, won or lost deals, and issued history retain their original attribution.

The manager-only Created by column and filter show the verified manual, API, or import creator. Historical records without a trustworthy creator remain System/Unknown. Assigning previously unassigned records needs confirmation; transferring work away from another salesperson also requires a reason. Filtered selections are revalidated before commit and are limited to 500 distinct customers per operation.

1.5 Navigation

The sidebar organises CRM features into sections:

• My Sales Workspace — Personal attention queue and next actions
• Leads — Qualification inbox for captured enquiries
• Customers — Relationship records after and alongside qualification
• Deals — List and Kanban views of active opportunities
• Activities and Conversations — Follow-up schedule and communication history
• Estimates and Proformas — Non-posting commercial offers and customer decisions
• Invoices and Contracts — Sales completion and ongoing agreements
• Reports — 10 analytical reports
• Settings — Pipelines, tags, email templates, channels, document branding, and CRM settings

1.6 Reading This Manual

• Use the role journey above the manual to find the shortest path for your work.
• Search with task words in any order, such as assign lead, send proforma, or Accounting sync.
• Select a section in Contents to jump directly to its steps.
• Read the System result and control notes before changing a status or converting a document.
• Use the permission table when a button or shortcut is not visible.

1.7 What's New in This Version

This manual now reflects the current CRM feature set, including:

• Manual Ghana channels — Phone, SMS, Facebook, and Instagram can be logged from the CRM inbox alongside integrated Email and WhatsApp
• Inbox response SLA — Conversations can now be tracked by overdue reply time and attention state
• Advanced stage policies — Pipelines can enforce checklists, next-action SLA expectations, auto-created follow-up activities, and escalation actions
• Enhanced forecasting — Forecast categories flow through deals and dedicated forecast reports
• Stronger commercial controls — Accepted quotes, mirrored invoices, and non-draft contracts now follow stricter lifecycle rules
• Private salesperson workspaces — Representatives see their assigned records while managers and owners retain business-wide visibility
• Reviewed estimate and proforma delivery — Issued documents use immutable snapshots, delivery history, secure customer responses, revision control, and idempotent invoice conversion